A^     ^-<L    M- 


eKf^ 


^6  ^^  "  ^=«  ^«*04j 


AND 


OF    THE 


POTT  AW  ATOMIES. 


Bead  before  the  Chic&go  Elstorieal  Society,  December  13,  1870, 


■BY  — 


John   Dean   Caton,  LL.  D. 


/ 


zv/ 


I'imsgm^ 


THE  LAST  OF  THE  ILLINOIS, 


A.    SKETCH 


OF   THE    POTTAWATOMIE  S 


READ  BEFOUE  THK  CHICAGO  IIISTORICAf,  SOCIETY.  DEC.  la,  18V0, 


JOHN    DEAN    CxYTON,    LL.  D, 


ii   i*  i*       I 


I,        I        *  *       *  '  • 


it  •  V 


It        a  .      «   4  I 


» ,     'I 


CHICAGO: 

RAND,  McNALLY  &  COMPANY,   PRINTERS,  61  CLARK  STREET. 

ISYO. 


On  tho  evening  of  December  13,  IS'JO,  the  Honorable  John  D.  Cato.v,  LL.  D., 
late  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Illinois,  road  before  the  Chicago  Historical 
Society  a  paper  entitled  "  Tho  lust  of  tho  Illinois,  and  a  Sketch  of  the 
Pottawatomies,"  Upon  the  conclusion  of  which,  on  motion  of  Mr.  Arnold, 
seconded  by  Jas.  L.  Stark,  Esq.,  it  was  unanimously— 

Resolved,  That  tho  thanks  of  tho  Society  are  ten  <red  to  the  Hon.  John 
Dean  Caton  for  the  able  and  interesting  paper  be  has  read,  and  that  he  be 
requested  to  place  tho  samo  among  the  archives  of  the  Society  and  furnish 
a  copy  for  publication. 


ADDEESS. 


Of  the  ancient  civilizations  we  know  but  little.  The 
beginnings  of  the  Egyptians,  the  Etrurianfi,  the  Grecians, 
the  Eornans,  and  even  the  Milesians,  are  cither  entirely 
shrouded  in  the  dark  shadows  of  the  far  distant  past,  or 
are  only  lit  up  by  the  feeble  rays  ailbrded  by  uncertain 
fables  or  mythical  traditions.  Even  far  beyond  these,  great 
peoples  lived,  whoso  existence  and  civilization  are  testified  to, 
by  broken  monuments  and  ruined  architecture,  widely  scattered, 
especially  over  Arabia  and  some  parts  of  Africa,  while  in  our  own 
country  and  particularly  in  Yucatan,  we  see  by  tlieir  works 
that  nations  have  lived  of  whom  we  know  absolutely  nothing 
as  to  whence  they  came  or  whither  tbey  have  gone. 

Geologists  tell  us  of  older  peoples  who  occupied  many  por- 
tions of  our  globe,  whose  times  they  have  divided  into  difter- 
ent  ages,  as,  the  stone  age,  the  bronze  age,  and  the  iron  age, 
because  of  the  materials  which  they  used  in  their  arts,  but  of 
their  coming  and  their  going  they  can  tell  us  nothing,  except 
that  they  existed  one  after  another  and  ceased  to  be.  Whence 
came  the  mound-builders  of  our  own  land,  or  those  who 
worked  the  copper  mines  of  Lake  Superior,  or  those  whose  old 
inscriptions  are  found  on  the  great  stones  of  New  Mexico,  or 
when  they  disappeared,  none  can  tell ;  they  lived,  made  their 
record  and  are  gone,  all  else  is  as  silent  and  as  dark  as  the  tomb 
that  covers  them.  Yet,  in  all  these  records  history  is  written, 
dim  and  shadowy  though  it  be,  still  it  is  history,  and  we  seize 

55810 


iijx)!!  each  scntcnco  of  it  as  upon  a  precious  treasure,  uiul 
wo  ponder  it  and  strain  our  eyes  to  find  more  than  it  really 
tells,  but  the  misty  veil  of  antiquity  hangs  over  it,  and 
finally  we  turn  away  unsatisfied. 

When  America  was  first  visited  by  Europeans,  at  least  those 
who  recorded  what  they  sav;,  it  was  occ'ipied  by  barbarous 
tribes,  some  much  more  advanced  than  others,  but  still  all  were 
barbarians.  Tradition,  among  the  more  advanced,  pretended 
to  tell  how  their  ancestors  had  come  from  more  northern 
climes,  till  nnally  they  settleij  in  the  milder  countries  of  Mexico 
or  Peru,  wliere  the}'  attained^a  sort  of  semi-civilization  far  in 
advance  of  the  wilder  nations,  either  to  the  north  or  south  of 
them,  out  whether  their  ancestors  were  the  mound-builders  or 
the  copper-workers,  who  once  lived  v/herc  we  live,  and  were 
driven  away  by  fierce  northern  hordes,  more  athletic  than 
they,  or  peacefully  left  the  land  in  search  of  a  climate  less 
rigorous,  we  can  never  know,  nor  can  we  satisfy  ourselves  of 
the  degree  of  credence  which  we  should  place  in  their  own 
traditions  as  told  by  their  old  men  to  the  first  Europeans  who 
saw  them  and  by  whom  their  stories  have  been  handed  down 
to  us. 

We  ilo  know,  certainly,  that  when  the  Atlantic  coast  was 
first  visited  by  white  men  who  have  transmitted  to  us  accounts 
of  what  they  saw,  they  found  here  tribes  of  Indians  who  sub- 
sisted principally  by  fishing  and  the  chase,  although  they 
practiced  agriculture  to  a  limited  extent,  for  they  supplied  the 
lirst  immigrants  to  New  England  with  corn  from  their  hidden 
stores.  The  early  explorers  occasionally  found  the  same  grain 
cultivated  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi,  and  Lewis  and  Clarke 
procured  ;  dnplies  of  it  on  the  Upper  Missouri.  Still  their 
agriculture  was  too  limited  to  have  had  much  influence  on  the 
density  of  population  ;  and  without  the  cultivated  products  of 
the  soil  no  country  can  sustain  a  large  population  of  men,  if 


we  except  some  tropic  il  countries  whore  spontaneous  fruits  are 
in  p3rpetual  season,  and  even  there  tiie  aboriginal  population 
was  found  to  be  very  sparse  as  uotnparetl  with  countries  where 
agriculture  furnishes  the  principal  sustenance  to  man. 

From  the  clianges  which  had  recently  taken  place  among  the 
original  inliabitants  of  this  country,  when  they  were  first  dis- 
covered, as  told  by  their  old  men,  and  also  from  the  changes 
which  occurred  after  their  discovery,  but  before  the  extermi- 
nating inlluence  of  civilization  bore  upon  them,  we  may  safely 
assume  that  national  and  even  tribal  formations  had  been 
([uite  recent,  yet  recent  as  they  no  doubt  were,  we  know  almost 
nothing  of  them.  While  we  know  that  some  nations  become 
totally  extinct  by  reason  of  aboriginal  warfare  alone,  we  cannot 
point  to  a  single  instance  of  the  birth  and  growth  of  any 
native  tribe  unless  the  uniting  of  the  remnants  of  several 
broken  tribes  into  one,  may  be  so  considered. 

At  last  we  arc  forced  back  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  only 
comparatively  in  modern  times  and  of  civilized  communities 
that  history,  whether  written  in  books  or  among  the  rocks,  tells 
us  of  the  origin  of  nations.  To  this  we  can  mention  one 
notable  exception,  liy  divine  interposition,  we  are  told  of 
the  beginning  and  of  tiie  progress,  and  by  profane  history  of 
the  final  extinction  of  one  of  the  great  ancient  nations  of  the 
earth.  There  we  are  told  of  its  founder,  Abraham,  of  its 
struggles,  of  its  triumphs  and  its  misfortunes,  of  its  victories 
and  its  defeats,  of  its  pure  worship  and  its  gross  idolatry,  and 
of  its  final  extinction  as  a  nation  under  the  lioman  Empire. 

Necessarily,  the  history  of  the  aborigines  of  this  country  is 
confined  to  the  period  since  their  first  discovery  by  the  educated 
man,  and  to  the  few  uncertain  traditions  told  by  them  of  their 
comparatively  very  recent  times,  and  most  of  these  traditions 
as  handed  down  to  us  are  purely  of  a  mythological  character, 
and  serve  to  teach  us  of  the  nature  of  the  imagination  or  mental 


6 

condition  of  tlic  native  rather  than  of  actual  facta  that  had 
gone  before.  Nor  do  those  who  have  made  the  study  of  the 
native  American  a  specialty  seem  to  iuxve  given  that  study  the 
form  of  connected  history  to  any  large  degree,  and  lie  that 
would  inform  himself  of  such  history  must  gather  it  from  a 
thousand  did'erent  sources,  picking  up  a  grain  here  and  there, 
as  he  can  find  it. 

More  than  thirty-seven  years  ago,  when  I  first  became  a 
citizen  of  Chicago,  I  found  this  whole  country  occupied  as  the 
hunting  grounds  of  the  Pottawatomie  Indians.  1  soon  formed 
the  acquaintance  of  many  of  their  chiefs,  and  this  acquaintance 
ripened  into  a  cordial  friendship.  I  found  them  really  intelli- 
gent and  possessed  of  much  information  resulting  from  their 
careful  observation  of  natural  objects.  I  traveled  with  them 
over  the  prairies,  I  hunted  and  I  fished  with  them,  I  camped 
with  them  in  the  groves,  I  drank  with  them  at  the  native 
spri'igs,  of  which  they  were  never  at  a  loss  to  find  one,  and  I 
partook  of  their  hospitality  around  their  camp  fires. 

Wild  scenes  have  always  had  a  charm  for  me.  I  have  ever 
been  a  lover  of  nature,  and  the  enjoyment  of  those  scenes 
when  prairie  and  woodland,  lake  shore  and  river  were  almost 
everywhere  as  nature  made  them,  have  left  behind  a  pleasing 
memory  which  sometimes  makes  me  almost  wish  that  I  could 
live  over  again  my  younger  days.  Since  nature's  handiwork 
has  been  defaced  all  around  us  by  the  hand  of  civilized  man, 
I  love  to  hie  away  to  distant  shores  and  the  far-off  mountains, 
and  with  a  few  friends  of  tastes  similar  to  my  own,  enjoy  the 
wild  scenery  among  the  rock-bound  islands  of  Puget's  Sound,  or 
the  still  solitude  of  the  high  Sierras.  Who  would  have  thought 
at  the  time  of  which  I  speak  that  he  who  then  here  enjoyed  the 
charms  which  nature  throws  over  all  her  works,  would  ever  seek 
the  far-ofl"  scenes  of  the  Pacific  slopes  in  which  to  indulge  his 
favorite  reveries?    There  are  some  who  liear  me  now,  who 


remember  tlic  lake  beach  with  its  conical  sandliiil.s  covered  over 
by  the  evergreen  juniper  whose  fragrance  loaded  with  a  rich 
aroma  the  soft  breeze  aa  it  quietly  crept  in  from  the  rippling 
".vaters  of  the  lake. 

That  old  lake  shore,  fashioned  as  God  had  made  it  bv  his 
winds  and  waves  for  ten  thousand  years  before,  had  more  charms 
for  me,  than  since  the  defacing  hand  of  man  has  builded  there 
broad  avenues  and  great  marble  palaces,  which  are  as  far 
beneath  tlie  works  of  nature's  Architect,  as  man  himself  is 
beneath  Ilim  who  made  all  things  well. 

I  thought  that  then  a  romantic  place  lit  for  the  mating  of  native 
lovers,  in  which  to  say  soft  words,  and  I  felt  assured  that  it  was 
so  thought  by  them  when  once  I  was  called  upon  to  unite  in 
wedlock  there  a  happy  pair,  whose  ambition  it  was  to  conform 
to  the  white  man's  mode  in  that  solemn  rite,  and,  as  the 
dusky  bride  explained,  that  it  might  last  forever. 

As  might  have  been  anticipated,  neither  history  nor  tradition 
pretends  to  go  back  to  the  origin  of  any  of  the  native  tribes 
who  occupied  this  land  when  first  explored  by  civilized  man. 
At  that  time  the  country  where  we  live  was  principally 
occupied  by  the  Illinois  Indians  who  were  an  important  people, 
who  ranged  from  the  Wabash  to  the  Mississippi,  and  from  the 
Ohio  even  to  Lake  Superior,  although  there  were  a  great  many 
other  tribes  occupying  the  same  territory.  Their  chief  location 
was  in  Northern  Illinois.  Here  was  their  home,  and  their 
great  metropolis  was  where  Utica  now  sta,nds,  in  La  Salle 
county.  There  then  stood  the  largest  city  ever  built  by  north- 
ern natives.  It  was  a  delightful  place  in  the  bosom  of  a  beautiful 
valley,  and  the  city  occupLed  all  the  intervening  space  between 
the  river  and  the  bluff,  nearly  a  mile  in  extent.  Their  great 
cemeteries  there  testify  to  the  populousness  of  the  place,  even 
were  the  testimony  of  the  first  discoverers  wanting.  If  we  do 
not  know  of  the  beginning  of  any  native  nation,  we  are  credi- 


bly  told  of  the  extinction  of  this  great  })oople,  and  that  too 
witiiin  u  century  after  they  were  found  so  populous  and  so 
prosperous  by  the  enterprising  explorers. 

Soon  after  their  discovery  by  La  Salle,  the  great  Iroquois 
confederation,  whose  battle  fields  were  strewn  with  their  vic- 
tims almost  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  the  Wabash,  and  from 
the  Great  Lakes,  and  even  north  of  them,  to  the  Alleghanies 
and  the  Ohio,  finally  extended  their  enterprises  to  the  Illinois. 
With  a  great  slaughter  they  defeated  this  hitherto  invincible 
people,  laid  waste  their  great  city,  and  scattered  them  in 
broken  bands  over  their  wide  domain.  From  this  terrible 
blow  they  never  recovered.  For  a  century  later  they  struggled 
with  waning  fortunes  against  northern  encroachments,  till 
finally  they  were  exterminated  by  the  Pottawatomies  and  the 
Ottawas,  at  Starved  liock,  the  Fort  St.  Louis  of  La  Salle, 
which  overlooks  the  site  of  their  great  city  and  the  scene  of 
their  first  great  defeat  and  slaughter  by  the  conquering  Iroquois, 
as  I  shall  presently  relate.  There  still  stands  this  high  isolated 
rock  as  it  has  stood  for  thousands  of  years  gone  by,  the  swift 
current  of  the  river  bathing  its  feet  on  one  side,  its  summit 
overlooking  the  broad  valley  and  the  many  wood-clad  islands 
for  many  miles  above  and  below  it,  fit  monument  to  the  great 
departed  who  had,  during  many  long  years  of  peace  and 
security,  looked  upon  its  impregnable  heights  as  a  secure 
refuge  in  case  of  disaster.  Alas !  if  it  was  secure  against  the 
approach  of  human  h,.  .ds,  gaunt  tarnine  could  scale  its 
ascents  and  do  its  deadly  work.  There  is  and  ever  will  be  a 
charm  about  the  place,  both  from  its  own  romantic  surround- 
ings and  the  melancholy  story  of  the  bloody  scenes  it  has 
looked  down  upon.  While  the  visitor  stands  upon  its  native 
battlements,  silently  pondering  what  has  been  told  him, 
insensibly  his  imagination  carries  him  back  to  ages  long  ago, 
and  ne  thinks  he  hears  the  wail  of  woe,  oft  and  oftentimes 


9 

repeated,  and  then  again  the  song  of  revelry  and  joy  sung  by 
those  departed  h:)ng  before  the  white  man  saw  it.  The  ances- 
tors of  my  ancient  friends  wore  responsible  for  the  hist  sad 
catastrophe. 

The  Pottawatomies  were  a  tribe  of  the  great  Algonquin 
confederation,  whose  power  was  so  severely  felt  by  the  British 
forces  when  at  war  with  France,  in  the  middle  of  the  last  cen- 
tury, though  we  do  not  know  the  story  of  their  individual 
prowess  in  that  sanguinary  warlare. 

When  Fathers  Allones  and  Doblon  first  visited  Green  Bay, 
and  there  established  a  mission,  just  two  hundred  years  ago, 
they  found  the  Pottawatomies  establislied  on  those  verdant- 
shores,  and  this  is  the  first  mention  I  can  find  of  them  in  his- 
tory. That  was  then  their  settled  home,  though  they  roamed, 
far  away,  for  they  were  in  the  habit  of  extending  their  visits 
to  the  shores  of  Lake  Superior.  In  1071  they  are  mentioned 
as  met  with  at  La  Point,  on  that  Lake,  by  the  missionary 
lathers, -not  as  residents,  but  as  visitors.  At  that  time  they 
were  not  known  south  of  the  lakes,  for  when  Joliet  and  Mar- 
quette returned  from  their  discovery  of  the  Mississippi,  by  way 
of  the  Illinois  River,  in  1674,  they  met  none  of  the  Pottawato- 
mies here. 

In  1675,  Marquette,  no  doubt  by  invitation  of  the  Illinois 
Indians,  whom  he  had  met  the  year  before  on  his  return  witli 
La  Salle  from  the  Mississippi,  came  from  Green  Bay  to  estab- 
lish a  Mission  here.  In  this  journey  he  was  attended  by  a 
party  of  Illinois  Indians,  and  also  by  a  band  of  the  Pottawat- 
omies. So  far  as  we  know,  these  were  the  first  of  the  tribe 
who  ever  saw  the  country  south  of  Lake  Michigan.  They 
coasted  the  west  side  of  the  lake  in  open  boats  or  canoes,  ^in 
the  latter  part  of  the  season,  when  the  lake  is  boisterous  and 
forbidding.  It  was  a  perilous  and  fatiguing  voyage  of  four 
months  duration,  and  sorely  tried  the  endurance  of  the  zealous 


10 

missionary.  They  at  last  reached  Chicago,  just  as  winter  was 
closing  in,  and  proceeded  up  the  South  Branch  of  the  river  to 
where  Bridgeport  now  stands,  and  there  built  a  hut,  in  which 
the  missionary  wintered.  After  the  lonely  and  tedious  winter 
was  passed,  lie  proceeded  down  the  Illinois  River  to  the  great 
city  of  the  Illinois,  below  Starved  Eock,  and  there  established 
the  first  Mission  ever  founded  in  the  Illinois  country,  and 
named  it  Kaskaskia. 

How  soon  after  this  the  Pottawatomies  left  their  old  home 
on  Green  Bay,  and  sought    more   hospitable   regions   further 
south,  we  are  not  informed ;  nor  can  we  tell  whether  the  emi- 
gration was  gradual,  or  if  they  broke  up  all  together,  but  as  we 
find  them  in  their  southern  homes  in  different  bands,  the  prob- 
abilities are  that  they  left  in  parties.     A  portion  settled  on  the 
Saginaw  Bay,  in  Michigan,  who  were  subsetjuently  known  as 
the  Pottawatomies  of  Saginaw,  or  of  Huron.     Others  descended 
as  far  as  Detroit,   and  settled   in   that  neighborhood.     Others 
found  their  way  to  the  St.  Joseph  River,  on  the  east  side  of 
Lake  Michigan ;  and  others,  it  may  be  presumed,  came  directly 
to  Northern  Illinois,  though  it  is  possible  they  spread  from 
Michigan   into  Illinois.     The  precise  dnte   of  these  several 
migrations  we  cannot  give,  but  Cragon  and  Bouquet  found  them, 
in  the  middle  of  the  last  century,  occupying  the  country  about 
Detroit  and  Fort  St.  Joseph  ;  and  we  find  no  account  of  them 
within  the  last  hundred  years  and  more  at  Green  Bay.     From 
these  explorers  we  get  the  first  intimation  of  their  numbers, 
and  yet  this  is  of  the  most  unsatisfactory  kind.     They  set  them 
down  at  three  hundred  and  fifty  ;  and  Dodge,  a  quarter  of  a 
century  later,  places  them  at  four  hundred  and  fifty,   while 
Hutchins  places  them  at  a  still  lower  number  than  the  first. 
Upon  these  numbers  we  can  place  but  little  reliance  ;  at  beat 
it  could  have  been  but  imperfect  estimates,  including  no  doubt 
only  those  bands   whom  they  met  at  Fort  St.  Joseph   and 


11 

Detroit,   without  taking  into  account  those  at  Saginaw  or  in 
Illinois.     We  may  safely  assume,  also,  that  these  figures  are 
designed  only  to  express  the  number  of  their  warriors,  for  Sir 
William  Johnson,  who  assembled  the  Algonquin  confederation 
at  Niagara  in  1763,  informs  us,  that  of  the  nineteen   hundred 
and  thirty  warriors  there  assembled,   four   hundred   and   lifty 
were   Pottawatomies,  or,    according  to  the   old    ortliography , 
_Poule()tamies.     With  them  and  their  associate  warriors.  General 
Bradstreet   there  concluded  a  treaty  which    pacified   all    the 
Indian  tribes  bordering  the  upper  lakes,  who  had  hitherto  been 
such  inveterate  enemies  to  the  British  Government  and  the  Eng- 
lish immigrant     A  reasonably  conciliatory  course  with  them 
since,  and  a  moderate  share  of  good  faith  towards  them,  have  ena- 
bled the  Canadas  to  live  with  those  who  resided  on  tlie  north 
shores,  in  amity   in  times  of  peace,  and  depend  upon  them  as 
allies  in  tinie  of  war.     The  number  of  warriors  representing  the 
Pottawatomies  at  the  Algonquin  convocation  at  Niagara,  shows 
that  the  whole  tribe  must  have  been  largely  in   excess  of  the 
numbers   given    by  Bouquet  and   others,  and  their  report  so 
nearly  approximates  to  the  number  of  warriors  at  Niagara,  as  to 
convince   us  at  once  that  they  spoke  only  of  their  able-bodied 
men.     Nor  is  it  very  probable  that  all  the  warriors  which  the 
several  bands  of  that  tribe  could  furnish,  made  the  long  jour- 
ney to  Niagara  to  attend  the  council.     The  fact  that  the  Potta- 
watomies furnished  nearly  one-fourth  of  the  representatives  in 
that  council  of  the  whole   Algonquin  confederation,   should 
convince  us  of  the  commanding  importance  of  this  tribe  in  that 
powerful  association  of  the  Indians,   and  so   were  they  the 
last,  south  of  the  lakes,  as  we  shall  see,  to  yield  up  their  place 
to  the  irresistible  advai.ce  of  civilization. 

The  fraternal  relations  existing  between  the  Pottawatomies 
and  the  Ottawas,  were  of  the  most  harmonious  character. 
They  lived  together  almost  as   one   people,  and  were  joint 


12 

owners  of  their  hunting  grounds.  Their  reUuions  were  quite  as 
intimate  and  friendly  as  among  different  bands  of  the  same  tribe. 
Nor  were  the  Chippowas  scarcely  more  strangers  to  the  Potta- 
watomies  and  tin;  Ottawas  than  the  latter  were  to  each  other. 
They  too  claimed  an  interest  in  the  lands  occupied,  to  a  cer- 
tain extent  by  all  jointly,  so  tiiat  all  three  tribes  joined  in  the 
lirst  treaty  for  the  sale  of  their  lands  ever  made  to  the  United 
States. 

Chicago  was  ever  an  important  point  in  the  estimation  of 
the  Pottawatomies  and  their  associates,  and  here  was  the  coun- 
cil held  which  resulted  in  that  first  treatv  in  132 1,  when  the 
three  tribes  named  ceded  to  the  United  States  five  millions  of 
acres  in  Michigan, 

Since  their  emigration  from  the  north,  a  sort  of  distinction 
had  grown  up  among  the  different  bands  of  the  Pottawatomies, 
arising  from  their  several  locations,  which  seem  to  have 
stamped  upon  their  tenants  distinct  characteristics,  lliose 
occupying  the  forest  lands  of  Michigan  and  Indiana,  were  called 
l)y  themselves  and  by  the  traders  the  Indians  of  the  Woods, 
while  those  who  roamed  these  great  grassy  plains  were  called 
the  Prairie  Indians. 

The  former  were  much  more  susceptible  to  the  influence  of 
(jivilization  tiian  the  latter.  They  devoted  themselves,  in  a 
very  appreciable  degree,  to  agriculture,  and  so  supplemented 
the  fruits  Oi  the  chase  very  largely  in  their  support.  They 
welcomed  the  missionary  among  them  with  a  warm  cordiality. 
They  listened  to  his  teachings,  and  meekly  submitted  to  his 
admonitions.  They  learned  by  heart  the  story  of  our  cruci- 
fied Redeemer,  and  with  trembling  voices  recounted  to  each 
other  the  sufferings  of  the  cross.  They  bent  the  knee  and 
bowed  the  head  reverently  in  prayer,  and  raised  their  melodi- 
ous voices  in  sacred  songs  taught  them  by  tlic  holy  fathers, 
'i'hey   received  the  sprinklings  with  holy  waters,  and   partook 


18 

«• 

of  the  consecrated  elements,  believing  devoutly  in  tbcir  saving 
grace.  They  went  to  tlic  confessional  with  downcast  looks, 
and  n'ith  deep  contrition  told  the  story  of  their  sins,  and  with 
a  radiant  joy  received  the  absolution,  which  iji  their  estimation 
blotted  them  out  forever.  Here  indeed  was  a  bright  field  of 
promise  to  those  devoted  missionaries,  who  dee})ly  felt  that  to 
save  one  heathen  soul  from  the  awful  doom  which  they 
believed  awaited  all  those  who  died  without  the  bosom  of  the 
church,  was  a  rich  reward  for  a  whole  life  of  pincliing  priva- 
tion and  of  severe  sufteritig:  and  their  great  ambition  was  to 
gather  as  many  redeemed  souls  as  possible  to  their  account, 
each  of  which  should  appear  as  a  bright  jewel  in  the  crown 
which  awaited  them  in  that  future  state  to  which  we  are  all  so 
rapidly  hastening. 

It  was  very  different,  however,  with  the  Prairie  Indians. 
They  despised  the  cultivation  of  the  soil  as  too  mean  even  for 
their  women  and  childi'en,  and  deemed  the  captures  of  the  chas<> 
as  the  only  fit  food  for  a  valorous  people.  The  corn  which  grew 
like  grass  from  the  earth  whieli  they  trod  beneath  their  feet,  was 
not  proper  meat  to  feed  their  greatness.  Nor  did  they  open 
their  ears  to  the  lessons  of  love  and  religion  tendered  them  by 
those  who  came  among  them  and  sought  to  do  them  good.  If 
they  tolerated  their  presence  they  did  not  receive  them  with 
the  cordiality  evinced  by  their  more  eastern  brethren.  If  they 
listened  to  their  sermons  in  r'cspectful  silence  they  did  not  receive 
the  truths  they  taught,  with  eager  gladness.  'Even  if  they 
believed  for  ihe  moment  what  they  were  told,  it  made  no  per- 
manent impression  on  their  thoughts  and  actions.  If  they 
understood  something  of  the  principles  of  the  Christian  relig- 
ion which  were  told  them,  they  listened  to  it  as  a  sort  of 
theory  which  might  be  well  adapted  to  the  white  man's  condi- 
tion, but  was  not  fitted  for  them,  nor  they  for  it.  They 
enjoyed  the  wild  roving  life  of  the  prairie,  and  in  common 


14 

« 

with  almost  all  oiher  native  Americans,  were  vain  of  tlieir 
prowess  and  manhood,  both  in  war  and  in  the  chase.  They  did 
not  settle  down  for  a  great  length  of  time  in  a  given  place,  but 
roamed  across  the  broad  prairies,  from  one  grove  or  belt  of 
timber  to  another,  either  in  single  families  or  in  small  bands, 
])acking  their  few  eflects,  their  children  and  infirm  on  their  little 
Indian  ponies.  They  always  traveled  in  Indian  file  npon  well 
beaten  trails,  connecting,  by  the  most  direct  routes,  prominent 
points  and  trading  posts.  These  native  highways  served  as 
guides  to  our  early  settlers,  who  followed  them  with  as  much 
confidence  as  we  now  do  the  roads  laid  out  and  worked  by 
civilized  man. 

Northern  Illinois  was  more  particularly  the  possession  of 
the  Pottawatomies,  but,  as  before  stated,  I  have  sought  in 
vain  for  some  satisfactory  data  to  fix  the  time  when  they  first 
settled  here.  They  undoubtedly  came  in  by  degrees,  and  by 
degrees  established  themselves,  encroaching  at  first  upon  the 
Illinois  tribe,  advancing  more  and  more,  sometimes  by  good- 
natured  tolerance,  and  sometimes  by  actual  violence.  I  have 
the  means  of  approximating  the  time  when  they  came  into 
exclusive  possession  here.  That  occurred  upon  the  total 
extinction  of  the  Illinois,  which  must  have  been  sometime 
between  1760  and  1770.  Meachelle,  the  oldest  Pottawatomie 
chief,  when  I  became  acquainted  with  them,  thirty-seven  years 
ago,  associated  his  earliest  recollection  with  their  occupancy  of 
the  country.  His  recollection  extended  back  to  that  great 
event  in  Indian  history,  the  siege  of  Starved  Rock  and  the 
final  extinction  of  the  Illinois  tribe  of  Indians,  which  left  his 
people  the  sole  possessors  of  the  land,  lie  was  present  at  the 
siege  and  the  final  catastrophe,  and  although  a  boy  at  the  time, 
the  terrible  event  made  such  an  impression  on  his  young  mind, 
that  it  ever  remained  fresh  and  vivid.  I  am  indebted  to  Mr. 
William  Ilickling  for  assisting  my  memory  on  a  point  so 
important. 


15 

The  death  of  Pontific,  the  great  Ottawa  eliicf,  occurred  in 
1766.  He  was  tlie  idol  of  his  own  people,  and  was  beloved 
and  obeyed  scarcely  less  by  the  Pottawatomics.  They  believed 
that  the  Illinois  Indians  were  at  least  accessory  to  his  murder, 
and  so  held  them  responsible,  and  consequently  the  Ottawas 
and  Pottawatomics  united  all  their  forces  in  an  attack  upon 
those  whoso  deadly  enemies  they  had  now  become.  I  am  not 
satisfied  that  their  previous  relations  had  been  those  of  cordial 
friendship,  but  if  the  peace  had  not  been  broken  by  open  war 
there  was  that  bad  blood  existing  between  them  which  must 
have  arisen  between  those  who  were  making  and  those  who 
were  suffering  encroachments. 

The  Illinois  Indians  never  fully  recovered  from  the  great 
calamity,  which  they  had  suffered  a  century  before  at  the 
hands  of  the  Iroquois.  By  that  their  spirit  and  their  courage 
seemed  broken,  and  they  submitted  to  encroachments,  from  the 
north  by  their  more  enterprising  neighbors,  with  an  ill  grace, 
no  doubt,  but  without  protecting  their  rights  by  force  of  arms, 
as  they  would  have  done  in  former  times,  and  sought  to  revenge 
themselves  upon  those  upon  whom  they  looked  as  their  actual 
enemies  in  an  underhand  and  treacherous  way. 

In  the  war  thus  waged  by  the  allies  against  the  Illinois, 
the  latter  suffered  disaster  after  disaster  till  the  sole  remnants  of 
that  once  proud  nation,  whose  name  had  been  mentioned  with 
respect  from  Lake  Superior  to  the  mouth  of  the  Ohio,  and  from 
the  Mississippi  to  the  Wabash,  now  found  sufficient  space  upon 
the  half  acre  of  ground  which  crowns  the  summit  of  Starved 
Rock.  As  its  sides  are  perpendicular,  except  on  the  south 
where  it  may  be  as'^ended  with  difficulty  by  a  sort  of  natural 
stairway,  where  some  of  the  steps  are  a  yard  high  and  but  a 
few  inches  wide,  and  not  more  than  two  can  ascend  abreast, 
ten  men  could  repel  ten  thousand  with  the  means  of  warfare 
then  at  their  command.     The  allies  made  no  attempt  to  take 


1(3 

the  fort  by  storm,  but  closely  bosiuged  it  on  e\cry  side.  On 
the  nortli  or  river  side,  the  upper  rock  overhangs  the  water 
somewhat,  and  tradition  tells  us  jiow  the  confederates  placed 
themselves  in  canoes  under  the  shelving  rock  and  cut  the 
thongs  of  the  besieged  wiion  they  lowered  their  vessels  to 
obtain  water  from  the  river,  and  so  reduced  them  by  thirst,  but 
Meachelle,  so  far  as  I  know,  never  mentioned  this  as  one  oi  ttic 
means  resorted  to  by  the  confederates  to  reduce  their  enemies, 
nor  from  an  examination  of  the  ground  do  I  think  this  probable, 
but  they  depended  upon  a  lack  of  provisions,  which  we  can  read- 
il}'  appreciate  must  soon  occur  to  a  savage  peoi)le,  who  rarely 
nnticipate  the  future  in  storing  up  supplies.  No  improvident 
people  could  have  subsisted  long  in  such  a  place.  How  long 
they  did  hold  out  Meachelle  did  not  and  probably  could  not 
tell  us  ;  but  at  last  the  time  came  when  the  unfortunate  rem- 
nant could  hold  out  no  longer.  They  awaited  but  a  fixvorable 
opportunity  to  attempt  their  escape.  This  was  at  last  alforded 
by  a  dark  and  stormy  night,  when  led  by  their  few  remaining 
warriors,  all  stole  in  profound  silence  down  the  steep  and 
narrow  declivity  to  be  met  by  a  solid  wall  of  their  enemies 
surrounding  the  point  where  alone  a  sortie  could  be  made, 
and  which  had  been  confidently  expected.  The  horrid  scene 
that  ensued  can  be  better  imagined  than  described.  No  quarter 
was  asked  or  given.  For  a  time  the  bowlings  of  the 
tempest  were  drowned  by  the  yells  of  the  combatants  and  the 
shrieks  of  the  victims. 

Desperation  lends  strength  to  even  enfeebled  arms,  but 
no  efforts  of  valor  could  resist  the  overwhelming  numbers, 
actuated  by  the  direst  hate.  The  braves  fell  one  by  one, 
fighting  like  very  fiends,  and  terribly  did  they  revenge  them- 
selves upon  their  enemies.  The  few  women  and  children 
whom  famine  had  left  but  enfeebled  skeletons,  fell  easy  victims 
to  the  war-clubs  of  the  terrible  savages,  who  deemed  it  as  much 


17 

ii  duty  and  almost  as  great  a  glory  to  slaughter  the  emaciated 
women  and  the  helpless  children  as  to  strike  down  the  men 
who  were  able  to  make  resistance  with  arms  in  their  hands. 
They  were  bent  upon  the  utter  extermination  of  their  hated 
enemies,  and  most  successfully  «lid  they  bend  their  savage 
energies  to  the  bloody  task. 

Soon  the  victims  were  stretched  upon  the  sloping  ground 
south  and  west  of  the  impregnable  rock,  their  bodies  lying  stark 
upon  the  sand  which  had  been  thrown  up  by  the  prairie  winds. 
The  wails  of  the  feeble  and  the  strong  had  ceased  to  fret  the 
night  winds  whose  mournful  sighs  through  the  neighboring 
pines  sounded  like  a  requiem.  Here  was  enacted  the  fitting 
finale  to  that  work  of  death  which  had  been  commenced, 
scarcely  a  mile  away,  a  century  before  by  the  still  more  sav- 
age and  terrible  Iroquois. 

Still,  all  were  not  destroyed.  Eleven  of  the  most  atliletio 
warriors,  in  the  darkness  and  confusion  of  the  fight,  broke 
through  the  besieging  lines.  They  had  marked  well  from  their 
high  perch  on  the  isolated  rock,  the  little  nook  below,  where 
their  enemies  had  moored  at  least  a  part  of  their  canoes,  and  to 
these  they  rushed  with  headlong  speed,  unnoticed  by  their  foes. 
Into  these  they  threw  themselves,  and  hurried  down  the 
rapids  below.  They  had  been  trained  to  the  use  of  the 
j)addle  and  the  canoe,  and  knew  well  every  intricacy  of  the 
channel,  so  that  they  could  safely  thread  it,  even  in  the  dark 
and  boisterous  night.  They  knew  their  deadly  enemies  would 
soon  be  in  their  wake,  and  that  there  was  no  safe  refuge  for 
them  short  of  St.  Louis.  They  had  no  provisions  to  sustain 
their  waning  strength,  and  yet  it  was  certain  death  to  stop  by 
the  way.  Their  only  hope  was  in  pressing  forward  by  night 
and  by  day,  without  a  moment's  pause,  scarcely  looking  back, 
yet  ever  fearing  that  their  pursuers  would  make  their  appearance 
around  the  point  they  had  last  left  behind.     It  was  truly  a  race 

2 


18 

for  life.  If  they  could  reach  St.  Louis,  they  were  safe;  if 
overtaken,  there  waa  no  hope.  We  must  leave  to  the  imngin- 
ation  the  details  of  a  race  where  the  stake  was  so  momentous 
to  the  contestants.  As  life  is  sweeter  even  than  revenge,  we 
may  safely  assume  that  the  pursued  were  impelled  to  even 
greater  exertions  than  the  pursuers.  Those  who  ran  for  life 
won  the  race.  They  reached  St.  Louis  before  their  enemies 
came  in  sight,  and  told  their  appalling  tale  to  the  commandant  of 
the  fort,  from  whom  they  received  assurances  of  protection,  and 
were  generously  supplied  with  food,  which  their  famished  con- 
dition so  much  rccjuired.  This  had  barely  been  done  when 
their  enemies  arrived,  and  liercely  demanded  their  victims,  t!iat 
no  drop  of  blood  of  their  hated  enemies  might  longer  circulate 
in  human  veins.  This  was  refused,  when  they  retired  with 
impotent  threats  of  future  vengeance,  which  they  never  had 
the  means  of  executing. 

After  their  enemies  had  gone,  the  Illinois,  who  never  after 
even  claimed  that  name,  thanked  their  entertainers,  and,  full 
of  sorrow,  which  no  words  can  express,  they  slowly  paddled 
their  way  across  the  river,  to  seek  new  friends  among  the  tribes 
who  then  occupied  the  southern  part  of  this  State,  and  who 
would  listen  with  sympathy  to  the  sad  tale  they  had  to  relate. 
They  alone  remained  the  broken  remnant  and  last  representa- 
tives of  their  once  great  nation.  Their  name,  even,  now  must 
be  blotted  out  from  among  the  names  of  the  aboriginal 
tribes.  Henceforth  they  must  cease  to  be  of  the  present,  and 
could  only  be  remembered  as  a  part  of  the  past.  This  is  the 
last  we  know  of  the  last  of  the  Illinois.  They  were  once  a 
great  and  a  prosperous  people,  as  advanced  and  as  humane  as 
any  of  the  aborigines  around  them ;  we  do  not  know  that  a 
drop  of  their  blood  now  animates  a  human  being,  but  their 
name  is  perpetuated  in  this  great  State,  of  whose  record  ot 
the  past  all  of  us  feel  so  proud,  and  of  whose  future  the 
hopes  of  us  all  are  so  sanguine. 


19 

Till  the  morning  light  rovoalud  tlmt  tlic  canoca  wore  gono, 
tho  confederates  belicvod  that  thoir  sanguinary  work  had  been 
80  thoroughly  done  that  not  a  living  soul  remained.  So  soon 
as  the  escape  was  discovered,  the  pursuit  was  commenced,  but 
as  we  have  seen,  without  sucwiss.  The  pursuers  returned  dis- 
appointed and  dejected  that  their  enemies'  scalps  were  not 
Imnging  from  their  belts.  But  surely  blood  enough  hail  been 
spilled — vengeance  should  have  been  more  than  satisfied. 

I  have  failed,  no  doul)t,  to  [)roperly  render  Meachelle's 
account  of  this  sad  drama,  for  I  have  been  obliged  to  use  my 
own  language,  without  the  inspiration  awakened  in  him  by  the; 
memory  of  the  scene  which  served  as  his  first  biiptism  in  blood. 
Who  can  wonder  that  it  made  a  lasting  impression  on  his 
youthful  mind?  Still,  ho  was  not  fond  of  relating  it,  nor  would 
he  speak  of  it  except  to  those  who  had  acquired  his  confidence 
and  intimacy.  It  is  probably  the  only  account  to  bo  had  related 
by  an  cye-witnes.'?,  and  wc  may  presume  that  it  is  the  most 
auth(;ntic,  and  may  well  deserve  preservation,  and  .so'may  be 
worthy  of  a  place  in  the  archives  of  this  Society,  whose  ])roper 
mission  it  is  to  gather  up  and  bring  to  light  whatever  still 
remains  to  be  gathered  from  the  memories  of  those  who  are  fast 
fading  away,  of  scenes  whose  theatre  was  the  land  we  live  in, 
and  of  peoples  who  once  occupied  this  territory.  The  few 
dim  lights  still  remaining  will  soon  be  put  out,  and  darkness 
and  oblivion  must  shroud  forever  all  that  is  then  unrecorded. 

This  great  event  in  Indian  history  secured  to  the  Pottawato- 
mies  all  the  territory  tlien  belonging  to  the  Illinois,  and  the 
exclusive  right  to  which  was  undisputed  by  other  tribes.  It 
extended  their  possessions  to  the  lands  of  the  Peorias  on  Peoria 
lake.  They  occupied  to  the  Wabash  as  far  south  as  Danville 
and  even  beyond.  On  the  other  side  they  occupied  to  the 
Rock  river,  though  their  right  to  a  strip  of  hind  on  the  east 
side  of  that  river  was  disputed  by  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians  who 


mngetl  the  prairies  west  of  there  and  hcyond  the  Mississippi. 
Tlioy  extendod  north  into  Wisconsin  us  far  ns  Milwaukee, 
though  their  northern  boundary  was  never  well  defined,  but 
their  friendly  relalions  with  the  Chippewas  j)rcvente(l  this  from 
ever  becoming  u  source  of  disagreement  between  them.  After 
the  extermination  of  the  Illinois,  their  general  condition  was 
that  of  peace,  and  I  have  learned  of  few  incidents  since  worthy 
of  record.  As  before  intimated  they  had  a  perpetual  diflicidty 
with  the  Sacs  and  Foxes  about  the  lands  bordering  on  the  east 
aide  of  llock  river,  and  when  the  braves  of  the  contestants 
met  on  the  disputed  territory  they  fought  it  out,  but  1  have 
not  learned  that  the  war  was  often  carried  beyond  the  con- 
tested grounds,  though  the  eastern  boundary  of  these  was 
(juite  undelined. 

As  a  tribe,  the  Pottawatomiea  may  not  have  taken  an  active 
part  against  the  United  States  in  the  war  of  1812,  yet  it  is 
certain  that  many  of  their  young  chiefs  and  braves  did  so. 
On  this  subject  they  were  extremely  reticent  At  one  time, 
when  riding  over  the  prairie  south  of  Blue  Island,  in  1833, 
with  Billy  Caldwell,  when  the  old  chief  as  usual  was  answer- 
ing my  questions  about  the  past  and  what  portion  of  the 
country  he  had  visited,  as  it  seemed  inadvertently,  he  com- 
menced givmg  an  account  of  an  expedition  of  the  British 
from  Canada  across  to  Ohio,  of  which  he  and  a  number  of  his 
wftrnors  formed  a  part,  but  he  had  hardly  got  them  landed  on 
our  shores,  when  he  seemed  to  remember  that  1  was  an  Ameri- 
can and  that  it  was  better  not  to  enlighten  me  further  on  the 
subject,  and  he  broke  off  suddenly,  nor  could  I  by  any  means 
prevail  upqn  him  to  return  to  the  subject. 

During  the  Black  Hawk  war,  as  it  was  called,  in  1832,  as  a 
people  they  remained  loyal  to  the  United  States,  but  it  was  with 
great  difficulty  that  many  of  the  young  men  were  kept  from 
participating  in  the  affray  with  the  Sacs  and  Foxes.     But  the 


81 

part  they  nctcd  in    tlmt   affuir  may  bo  found  in  tlie  written 
liistory  of  the  times. 

Chicago  was  ever  a  favorite  resort  of  the  Pottawatoniiea. 
Here  they  chose  to  hoM  their  f?reat  councils,  ajid  here  they 
concluded  the  last  treaty  with  our  Government  as  they  had  the 
first,  as  I  have  already  stated,  twelve  years  before.  This  last 
treaty  was  held  in  1833,  and  I  was  a  daily  attendant  upon  the 
deliberations  of  the  council.  By  this  time  the  Ottawas  and 
the  Pottawatornies  had  become  so  blended  and  intermixed 
that  they  had  become  practically  one  people,  and  were  gener- 
ally designated  by  the  latter  name.  I  do  not  remember  the 
number  of  Indians  in  town  at  the  time  of  the  treaty,  but  the 
o.ssemblage  was  by  no  means  confined  to  the  chiefs  who  par- 
ticipated in  the  deliberations.  There  were  certainly  several 
thousand  natives  here,  who  were  sup|)lied  with  regular  rations 
of  beef  and  flour  by  the  Government,  and  it  was  manifest  that 
they  were  quite  willing  to  protract  the  conference  so  long  as 
these  should  last.  At  the  close  of  each  important  delibera- 
tion, especially  if  much  progress  seemed  to  have  been  made,  a 
keg  of  twisted  plug  tobacco  was  rolled  into  the  council  house, 
the  staves  cut  in  the  middle  with  an  ax,  and  the  chiefs 
told  to  help  themselves.  This  was  accompanied  with  a  box 
of  white  clay  pipes.  They  helped  themselves  with  great  deco- 
rum, and  even  some  ceremony. 

By  this  last  treaty,  concluded  at  Chicagi>,  in  1833,  the 
Indians  disposed  of  all  their  remaining  lands  to  the  United 
States,  except  some  specific  reservations  to  some  of  their  chiefs, 
and  agreed  to  remove  to  a  limited  location  assigned  them  west 
of  the  Missouri  river.  When  the  treaty  was  finally  concluded 
and  the  presents  all  distributed,  and  no  more  rations  served 
out,  they  gradually  dispersed  till  only  those  who  resided  in  and 
about  Chicago  remained.  For  two  years  longer  this  people 
continued  among  us,  subsisting  as  they  had  done  before,  noth- 


22 

ing  worthy  of  note,  so  far  as  I  know,  occuring  in  the  meantime. 
In  1835,  and  for  tlie  last  time,  the  whole  assembled  at 
Chicago,  to  receive  their  annuity  from  the  Government, 
and  to  make  their  final  start  for  their  new  home.  I  was 
absent  at  the  time  of  their  assemblage,  and  have  no  means 
of  stating  at  what  date  they  began  to  make  their 
appearance  in  the  town,  for  now  Chicago  had  really 
begun  to  present  an  appearance  which  would  well  justify  the 
name.  Here  for  the  first  time,  many  who  had  through  their 
whole  lives  been  in  the  habit  of  visiting  this  favorite  location, 
when  the  rank  grass  grew  waist  high  where  the  Tremont  and  the 
Sherman  houses  now  stand,  must  have  been  deeply  impressed 
with  the  marks  of  civilization  vastly  more  extensive  than  any 
they  had  ever  seen  before  or  been  able  to  comprehend.  It  assured 
them,  and  they  comprehended  it,  that  they  were  already  strangers 
in  their  native  land.  That  a  mightier  race  had  come,  so  far 
their  superior  that  they  must  fade  away  before  it  It  is 
emphatically  true  of  all  our  American  Indians,  that  they 
cannot  exist,  multiply,  and  prosper  in  the  light  of  civilization. 
Here  their  physical  vigor  fails,  their  reproductive  powers 
diminish,  their  spirit  and  their  very  vitality  dwindle  out,  and 
no  philanthropy,  no  kindness,  no  fostering  care,  of  govern- 
ment, of  societies,  or  of  individuals,  can  save  them  from  an 
inevitable  doom.  They  are  plainly  the  sick  man  of  America; 
with  careful  nursing  and  the  kindest  care,  we  may  prolong 
his  stay  among  us  for  a  few  years,  but  he  is  sick  of  a  disease 
which  can  never  be  cured  except  by  isolating  him  from  civili- 
zation, and  remanding  him  to  nature's  wildness,  which  in  truth 
has  more  charms  in  many  cases  for  even  the  white  man,  than 
the  refinements  and  the  restraints  of  the  white  man's  mode  of 
life.  Our  tastes  for  these  are  the  results  of  artificial  training, 
and  our  tendency  is  constantly  to  relapse  to  a  wilder  life  in 
the  woods  and  in  the  mountains.     The  bivouac  of  the  soldier 


23 

has  a  charm  to  which  he  often  recurs  with  animated  pleasure. 
The  camp-fire  of  the  hunter  lias  a  fascination  which  he  who 
has  enjoyed  it  can  never  forget.  And  in  our  earliest  childhood 
we  showed  our  natural  tastes  and  inclinations  by  listening  to 
stories  of  these,  with  more  avidity  than  any  other.  Mayne 
Keid  built  his  hopes  on  this  juvenile  taste,  which  he  knew  was 
stronger  than  any  other,  when  he  wrote  his  charming  stories 
which  have  made  his  name  so  popular,  yes,  and  so  dear,  too,  to 
the  rising  generation.  Accounts  of  huntings  and  fishings,  of  liv- 
ing in  the  woods  and  in  the  plains,  or  in  some  sweet  little  nook 
at  the  foot  of  the  mountain,  down  which  the  babbling  brook 
comes  from  the  melted  snows  far  above,  and  where  nature 
in  her  unbroken  beauty  and  her  sublimity  reigns  around  in 
her  supreme  silence,  and  there  is  no  mark  and  no  sound  of 
civilization  near, — these  have  fascmations  for  even  the  white 
race  as  well,  which  are  entirely  wanting  in  the  most  glowing 
accounts  of  cathedrals,  and  palaces,  and  pictures,  descriptions 
of  which  fail  to  interest  those  whose  tastes  have  not  been 
cultivated  up  to  their  full  appreciation.  If  a  love  of  nature 
in  her  wildest  moods  and  scenes  be  a  relic  of  barbaric  taste, 
which  civilization  has  failed  to  eradicate,  then  to  that  extent, 
at  least,  I  am  a  savage  still. 

This  tendency  in  the  white  race  to  revert  to  what  we  may 
term  the  natural  tastes,  is  strongly  manifested,  whenever  we  see 
one  taken  in  infancy  and  brought  up  among  savages.  Almost 
always  he  is  the  greatest  savage  of  them  all,  notwithstanding  the 
hereditary  influence  through  many  generations  of  those  culti- 
vated tastes  and  habits  which  distinguish  the  civilized  man 
from  the  savage.  This  observation  may  not  be  confined  to  the 
case  cited,  although  that  is  perhaps  the  most  convincing  of 
this  tendency  to  revert  to  the  savage  state.  We  often  see  cases 
where  rnen  have  grown  to  maturity  in  the  midst  of  civilized 
society,  uniting  themselves  with  the  native  tribes,  and  enjoy- 


24 

ing  that  life  better  thun  the  former,  and  chosiiig-  to  spend  their 
days  with  their  new  found  friends,  although  it  involves  a  sacri- 
fice of  all  those  ties  which  so  strongly  bind  us  to  friends  and 
kindred  and  early  associations.  In  such  cases  v/e  rarely  find 
them  practicing  those  arts  which  they  had  early  Icariied.  or 
those  habits  of  industry  which  is  the  distinguishing  character- 
istic of  civilised  man.  It  is  undoubtedly  true,  in  these  latter 
cases,  that  he  who  becomes  a  savage  after  puberty,  has  an 
exceptional  inclination  to  revert  to  the  wild  state ;  still  the 
number  is  so  considerable  as  to  show  us  that  civilization  has 
not  been  so  long  continued  as  to  wholly  change  our  natures, 
and  that  it  is  almost,  if  not  entirel}',  artificial. 

I  think  the  facts  will  warrant  the  conclusion  that  this  ten- 
dency to  reversion  is  much  stronger  in  the  male  than  the  female. 
In  the  few  instances  where  the  white  female  has  been  reared  in 
savage  life,  and  has  then  been  reclaimed,  she  has  more  readily 
conformed  to  civilized  habits,  and  has  shown  less  longing  for 
the  wild  scenes  among  which  she  was  reared  ;  and  when  she 
has  been  introduced  to  savage  life  after  maturity,  she  seems 
always  happy  to  escape  it.  In  observing  this  fact,  however, 
we  ought  not  to  forget  that  the  harder  lot  of  the  female  among 
savage  peoples  may  tend  to  make  her  more  willing  to  escape 
from  what  is  really  a  state  of  bondage  and  servitude,  than  with 
the  man,  who  is  in  every  sense  an  equal,  or,  from  his  higher 
intellectual  endowments,  may  most  likely  occupy  a  superior 
position. 

Keverse  the  state  of  things,  and  how  rarely  do  we  find  the 
savage  ever  civilized.  In  the  numerous  instances  where  the 
savage  infant  has  been  removed  from  the  influences  and 
allurements  of  his  ancestors,  and  reared  entirely  among  us,  and 
taught  all  that  civilization  and  Christianity  could  teach  him, 
but  very  few  have  been  wholly  weaned  from  the  tastes  and 
inclinations  which  they  have  inherited  from  their  savage  ances- 


25 

tors.  Some  notable  and  brilliant  exceptions  arc  no  doubt  to 
be  met  with,  but  they  are  so  rare  as  to  inspire  ratlier  our 
remark  and  admiration  than  a  well  grounded  ho])etliat  we  can 
ever  succeed  in  reclaiming  them  as  a  people. 

The  native  American  is  in  some  respects  a  proud  and  a  sen- 
sitive being,  and  is  not  wanting  in  reflective  powers.  When 
brought  in  contact  with  civilization,  he  recognizes  his  inferiority, 
-and  appreciates  his  inability  ever  to  overcome  it.  He  feels 
that  he  cannot  live  with  the  stranger,  excejit  as  an  inferior,  and, 
inspired  by  his  native  pride,  he  would  rather  cease  to  be  than 
to  do  this.  He  appreciates  his  inevitable  doom.  He  ceases  to 
hope,  and  then  comes  despair,  which  contributes  more  than  all 
else  to  hasten  the  result  which  he  foresees.  While  all  have 
seen  from  the  beginning  that  the  aborigines  melt  away  and  die 
out  before  the  advance  of  civilization,  in  spite  of  the  most 
humane  elVorts  to  })roduce  a  dillerent  result,  we  may  not  have 
appreciated  all  the  causes  which  have  contributed  to  this  end. 
Those  which  have  been  the  most  readily  understood,  because 
the  most  patent,  are  the  vices  and  diseases  and  poisonous  drinks 
which  the  white  race  has  introduced  among  them  from  the  very 
first.  If  these  were  the  only  causes  we  might  deem  it  possible, 
by  municipal  regulations,  to  remove  them.  Wh'le  this  would 
be  a  great  boon  which  civilization  undoubtedly  owes  to  the 
original  owners  of  the  soil  where  we  are  so  rapidly  expanding 
into  a  great  nation,  I  am  satisfied  it  would  not  secure  the  great 
end  which  philanthropy  must  most  ardently  desire.  Still  they 
would  not  amalgamate  with  civilization,  nor  become  civilized 
as  a  separate  people.  They  can  only  live  and  prosper  and 
multiply  by  continuing  as  their  ancestors  have  lived,  in  a  wild 
state,  roaming  over  large  areas  sparsely  populated,  de])ending 
upon  what  they  can  secure  of  nature's  raising,  and  "lien  their 
numbers  become  too  great  for  subsistence  upon  such  supplies, 
they  must  become  reduced  by  wars,  disease  or  famine. 


26 

The  views  I  have  suggested,  of  the  effect  upon  the  mind 
and  the  sensibilities  of  the  Indian,  which  is  produced  by  liis 
observations  of  advancing  civilization  as  it  intrudes  upon  him, 
and  its  reflected  influence  upon  his  physical  organization,  I 
think  well  illustrated  and  confirmed  by  the  observations  of  Mr. 
Sproat  in  his  "  Scenes  and  Studies  of  Savage  Life."  He 
employed  a  large  number  of  natives  about  his  saw-mills  at 
Barclay  Sound,  on  Vancouver's  Island.  Here  the  natives 
were  settled  around  hira  in  comfortable  dwellings  with  their 
families,  and  worked  promiscuously  with  the  white  laborers. 
The  strictest  temperance  was  enforced  throughout  the  settle- 
ment, and  no  violence  was  permitted  toward  the  natives,  but 
they  were  treated  with  the  utmost  kindness  and  fairness. 
They  were  well  fed,  well  clothed,  and  carefully  taught.  Here 
they  were  surrounded  with  all  the  best  influences  of  civiliza- 
tion, and  as  few  of  the  vices  as  we  may  expect  to  find,  when 
the  red  man  is  brought  in  contact  with  the  white. 

For  a  time  all  seemed  to  go  on  well,  and  the  experiment 
promised  a  success.  At  length,  however,  a  change  became 
observable,  especially  among  the  Indians  who  lived  nearest  the 
white  settlements.  A  few  of  the  sharpest  of  the  young  natives 
had  become  offensively  European,  as  he  calls  it,  but  the  mass 
of  the  Indians  had  ceased  to  visit  the  settlement  in  their  free, 
easy  and  independent  way,  but  lived  listlessl}'  in  their  villages, 
brooding  seemingly  over  heavy  thoughts.  They  seemed  to 
have  acquired  a  distrust,  nay,  almost  a  disgust  for  themselves. 
At  first  they  had  looked  upon  mills  and  machinery,  upon  steam- 
ships and  upon  great  houses,  indeed  upon  all  the  wonderful  works 
of  the  new  comer,  with  curiosity  and  interest,  but  now,  with  dis- 
trust, with  disgust,  and  even  with,  despair;  the  effect  of  this  de- 
spair was  now  manifest.  They  even  began  to  abandon  their  old 
tribal  habits,  practices  and  ceremonies.  Presently,  without  any 
apparent  cause,  an  unusual  amount  of  sickness  was  observed 


27 

among  them,  and  the  death-rate  was  largely  increased,  and  so 
continued  during  the  five  years  that  our  author  remained 
among  them.  Nobody  molested  them.  Notwithstanding  all 
their  comforts  and  all  the  care  bestowed  upon  them  they  sunk 
into  a  gradual  but  sure  decay. 

The  light  of  civilization  instead  of  warming  them  into  new 
life  seemed  to  bring  a  blight  upon  them ;  they  fJt  that  they 
were  an  inferior  race.  They  lacked  the  energy,  and  therefore 
the  ability,  to  become  and  live  as  civilized  men,  and  their 
proud  hearts  were  crushed  at  the  thoughts  of  living  with  the 
white  race  as  inferiors  and  therefore  a  degraded  race,  and  then 
necessarily  followed  disgust  and  despair,  and  then  came  disease 
and  death. 

Had  they  lacked  that  lofty  pride  and  that  love  of  indepen- 
dence which  are  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  our  Indians,  they 
might  have  enjoyed  the  comforts  which  civilization  brought 
them,  without  mortification  at  the  consciousness  of  living  as 
inferiors  among  a  superior  race.  But  no  kindness,  no  assistance, 
no  proffered  recognition  of  equality,  could  hide  from  their 
view  that  they  were  and  must  be  inferiors,  while  they  could  in 
contentment  brook  no  superiors  in  fact. 

In  several  cases  advanced  aboriginal  Indian  tribes,  have  by  act 
of  Congress  been  declared  citizens  and  endowed  with  all  the 
rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship.  Still  they  were  conscious 
of  their  inability  to  properly  exercise  rnd  enjoy  those  rights 
and  privileges.  They  knew  they  could  not  exercise  the  fran- 
chise side  by  side  with  the  white  man,  with  the  same  degree  of 
intelligence  and  judgment,  and  so  they  scorned  to  use  it. 
Perhaps  it  would  have  been  better  for  them  could  they  have 
ignored  the  real  divStinction  which  existed  between  them  and 
the  white  race,  and  persuaded  themselves,  or  been  persuaded 
by  others,  that  they  were  the  equals  of  any.  They  had  too 
much  shrewdness  to  be  thus  blinded,  and  so  they  recognized  a 


28 

truth  which  another  disposition  would  have  concealed  from 
them,  and  submitted  to  what  seemed  to  be  a  fate,  in  a  sort  of 
reckless,  sullen  silence,  at  least  till  a  possible  onportunity 
should  occur  for  striking  a  blow,  though  it  might  be  an 
expiring  one,  for  what  they  believed  existence;  and  if  not  for 
existence  then  for  revenge — if  not  for  the  future  then  for  the 
past. 

Laying  aside  what  all  must  recogni/o  as  palpai)lo  evils 
introduced  among  them,  as  fraud,  whisky,  and  demoraliza- 
tion, there  is,  upon  a  deeper  look  beneath  the  surface,  a  fatal 
difliculty  which  all  the  kindness  and  service  which  civilization, 
philanthro])y  and  Christianity  can  render  them  cannot  over- 
come. 

The  proud  and  haughty  chieftain  clearly  sees  in  the  coming 
of  the  stranger,  and  in  his  proffered  kindness,  the  unavoidable 
degradation  of  his  people  from  that  lofty  estate  of  proud  inde- 
pendence which  his  forefathers  maintained,  and  that  at  hist, 
after  being  driven  from  their  envied  inheritance,  and  finding 
no  place  of  rest  but  in  the  grave  itself,  their  final  ex- 
tinction from  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  is  a  sad  picture,  and 
yet  it  stands  out  before  us  in  the  light  of  the  past  as  if  painted 
on  the  wall  before  us  by  the  Divine  finger.  We  may  not  deny 
that  the  sacrifice  is  necessary  to  promote  the  greatest  good  to 
the  greatest  number,  but  surely  we  may  heave  a  sigh  of  sym- 
pathy for  the  victim  whose  immolation  is  necessary  to  carry 
out  even  a  Divine  plan.  And  so  may  we  have  some  compas- 
sion for  him  if  in  his  death-throws  he  manifests  his  savage  and 
untamable  nature.  If  it  was  his  misfortune  to  be  born  a 
savage,  with  no  rights  which  the  white  man  is  bound  to 
respect,  then  it  was  his  misfortune  also  to  be  born  with  a  nature 
which  renders  him  incapable  of  civilization,  a  lofty  desire  for 
independence,  a  profound  detestation  for  everything  like  ser- 
vitude, a  deep-seated  sentiment  of  revenge,  and,  above  all,  a 


29 

total  inability  to  appreciate  how  it  is  that  he  has  no  rights 
which  he  may  call  his  own,  and  which  even  a  superior  race 
should  rej^ard. 

We  must  admit  that  even  our  boasted  civilization  has 
its  strange  phases,  and  sometimes  its  manifest  inconsist- 
encies. We  repeat  the  maxim  that  might  nuikes  right 
always  with  reproach,  and  yet  act  upon  it  whenever  the  public 
weal  is  supposed  to  require  it.  Perhaps  the  truest  and  the 
best  justification  whiclx  we  can  plead  for  insisting  upon  taking 
the  lands  of  the  aborigines  whenever  we  wish  them,  using  no 
more  force  than  is  necessary  to  accomplish  what  we  deem 
necessary — whether  the  owner  is  willing  to  sell  them  or  not — 
is  that  a  few  useless  savages,  who  can  do  no  good  for  the  world 
at  large,  and  little  good  even  for  themselves,  must  not  stand  in 
the  way  of  the  march  of  civilization  ;  that  God  made  *he  earth 
and  all  that  is  upon  it  for  llis  own  honor  and  glory,  and  that 
both  they  and  we  are  but  tenants  at  His  will ;  and  that  it  is  His 
undoubted  right,  whenever  in  His  good  pleasure  He  sees  fit,  to 
eject  those  who  in  His  estimation  do  Him  no  honor,  and  replace 
them  by  those  who  may  contribute  more  to  His  glory,  and  that 
thus  He  is  working  out  His  great  scheme  conceived  from  the 
beginning  of  all  time.  I  say,  if  we  can  but  thus  console 
ourselves  that  in  what,  to  the  superficial  observer  seems  to  be 
spoliations  of  the  weak  by  the  strong,  we  are  but  instruments 
in  the  hands  of  the  Almighty  to  work  out  His  great  purposes 
and  to  execute  His  solemn  decrees,  then,  indeed,  we  may  feel  that 
we  have  washed  our  hands  in  innocency.  For  myself,  I  have 
never  been  a  very  ardent  believer  in  what  is  sometimes  called 
special  missions,  and  merely  suggest  this  as  the  most  plausible 
justification  which  1  have  ever  been  able  to  contrive.  Still, 
I  do  believe  that  my  old  friends  did  not  see  it  exactly  in  that 
light  when  they  turned  their  backs  upon  Chicago,  the  scene  ot 
so  many  of  their  grave  councils  and  of  their  happy  gatherings 


30 

— when  they  looked  for  the  last  time  upon  the  ever  bright  waters 
of  the  lake,  and  bent  their  alow  and  reluctant  steps  to  a  land 
of  which  they  knew  not,  and  in  which  they  would  be  strangers  ; 
and  yet  there  were  old.  men  among  tliem  who  could  have  told 
them  that  their  fathers  had  with  bloodier  hands  expelled 
another  nation  who  had  occupied  the  land  before  them,  and 
that  no  doubt  the  title  had  been  thus  transferred  many  times, 
the  conveyance  always  sealed  by  the  blood  of  the  last  owner. 

At  this  last  gathering  of  the  tribe  at  Chicago  the  total  num- 
ber of  souls  was  about  five  thousand.  While  here  they  were 
well  fed  by  the  Government ;  and  when  they  went  they  were 
removed  by  the  Government  under  the  charge  of  the  late 
Captain  Kussell.  By  him  they  were  transported  to  their  new 
home  on  a  reservation  assigned  them  by  the  Government  in 
Clay  county,  Missouri,  opposite  Fort  Leavenworth.  Almost 
from  the  beginning  a  feeling  of  hostility  was  manifested 
towards  them  by  the  citizens  of  Missouri,  which  ^finally 
resulted,  at  the  end  of  two  years,  in  another  removal  by  the 
Government,  when  they  were  located  in  Iowa,  near  Council 
Bluffs.  Here,  again,  their  home  was  of  short  duration,  and 
they  were  removed  a  third  time  by  the  Government  to  their 
present  location  in  Kansas,  where  they  have  remained  for  over 
thirty  years.  This  reservation,  however,  they  have  now  sold, 
and  are  about  to  remove  for  a  fourth  time  within  little  more 
than  a  third  of  a  century.  Their  new  location  is  in  the  Indian 
country  south  and  west  of  Kansas.  How  long  it  will  be 
before  the  pressure  of  advancing  civilization  will  again  push 
them  ou  in  search  of  a  new  home,  we  cannot  certainly  predict. 
We  may  safely  say,  however,  that  it  cannot  be  very  long. 
We  may  scarcely  hope  that  they  will  ever  find  a  quiet  resting 
place  above  the  earth. 

In  their  Kansas  home,  the  Indians  of  the  wbods  have  con- 
tinued to  manifest  their  greater  adaptability  to  conform  to  the 


31 

habits  of  civilized  life.  They  have  there  subsisted  to  a  large 
extent  by  agriculture.  Same  progress  has  been  made  in  teach- 
ing them  in  schools,  and  the  iniluence  of  religion  still  exerts  its 
sway  over  them,  or  at  least  their  religious  teachers  still  com- 
mand their  attention  and  respect.  Out  of  seventeen  hundred 
and  fifty  of  which  this  band  still  consisted,  according  to  the 
last  report  which  I  have  seen,  sixteen  hundred  are  represented 
as  subsisting  by  agriculture. 

The  prairie  Indians  yet  remain  as  wild  and  untamable  as 
ever.  They  are  still  averse  to  the  labors  of  the  Held,  and 
enjoy  the  life  of  indolence  or  else  the  excitement  ot  the  chase, 
by  which  and  their  annuities  from  the  Government  they  eke 
out  a  scanty  subsistenca  The  tinger  of  fate  seems  to  be  pointed 
alike  at  the  most  civilized  and  the  most  savage.  Final  extinc- 
tion is  the  end  of  the  way  down  which  all  are  sv^'^tly  rushing, 
and  it  would  seem  almost  practicable  to  calculate  with  mathe- 
matical certainty,  the  day  when  they  will  live  only  in  memory 
and  in  history. 

They  left  Illinois  thirty-tive  years  ago  with  live  thousand 
souls.  At  the  date  of  the  last  report  they  had  dwindled  down 
to  three  thousand  live  hundred,  and  at  this  moment  their  num- 
bers can  scarcely  ex-jeed  three  thousand.  From  this  each  one 
may  calculate  for  himself  when,  the  last  day  shall  have  passed 
— when  there  will  be  no  living  representative  of  that  powerful 
people  who  but  a  century  ago  exterminated  a  nation  at  a 
single  blow  at  Starved  Eock.  The  last  of  the  Pottawatomies 
will  then  have  ceased  to  be. 

I  shall  close  this  paper  with  an  account  of  the  great  war 
dance  which  was  performed  by  all  the  braves  which  could  be 
mustered  among  the  five  thousand  Indians  here  assembled. 
The  number  who  joined  in  the  dance  was  probably  about  eight 
hundred.     Although  I  cannot  give  the  precise  day,  it  must 


82 

liave  occurred  about  the  last  of  August,  1835.  It  was  the  last 
war  (laucc  over  j)erfbnnetl  by  the  natives  on  the  ground  where 
now  stands  this  great  city,  though  how  many  tliousands  had 
preceded  it  no  one  can  tell.  They  appreciated  that  it  was  the 
last  on  their  native  soil — that  it  was  a  sort  of  funeral  ceremony 
of  old  associations  and  memories,  and  nothing  was  omitted  to 
lend  to  it  all  the  grandeur  and  solemnity  possible.  Truly  I 
thought  it  an  impressive  scene  of  which  it  is  quite  impodsible 
to  give  an  adequate  idea  by  words  alone. 

They  assembled  at  the  council-house,  near  where   the  Lake 
House  now  stands,  on  the  north  side  of  the  river.     All  were 
entirely  naked,  except  a  strip  of  cloth  around  the  loins.     Their 
bodies  were  covered  all  over  with  a  great  variety  of  brilliant 
paints.      On  their  faces,   particularly,   they  seemed   to  have 
exhausted  their  art  of  hideous  decoration.     Foreheads,  checks, 
and  noses,  were  covered  wjth  curved  stripes  of  red  or  vermilion, 
which  were  edged  with  black  points,  and  gave  the  appearance 
of  a  horrid  grin  over    the  entire  countenance.     The   long, 
coarse,  black  hair,  was  gathered  into  scalp-locks  on  the  tops  of 
their  heads,  and  decorated  with  a  profusion  of  hawk's  and 
eagle's  feathers,  some  strung  together  so  as  to  extend  down  the 
back  nearly  to  the  ground.     They  were  principally  armed  with 
tomahawks  and  war  clubs.     They  were  led  by  what  answered 
for  a  band  of  music,  which  created  what  may  be  termed  a  dis- 
cordant din  of  hideous  noises  produced  by  beating  on  hollow 
vessels  and  striking  sticks  and  clubs  together.     They  advanced, 
not  with  a  regular  march,  but  a  continued  dance.     Their  actual  ' 
progress  was  quite  slow.     They  proceeded  up  and  along  the 
bank  of  the  river,  on  the  north  side,  stopping  in  front  of  every 
house  they  passed,  where  they  performed  some  extra  exploits. 
They  crossed  the  North  Branch  on  the  old  bridge,  which  stood 
near  where  the  railroad  bridge  now  stands,  and   thence  pro- 
ceeded south  along  the  west  side  to  the  bridge  across  the  South 


33 

Branch,  which  stood  south  of  whero  Lake  street  l)ridge  is  now 
located,  which  was  nearly  in  front  and  in  full  view  from  the 
parlor  windows  of  the  Sauganash  hotel.  At  that  time  thia 
was  the  rival  hotel  to  the  Tremont,  and  stood  upon  the  same 
ground  lately  occupied  by  the  great  Republican  wigwam  where 
Mr.  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  the  presidency — on  the  corner 
of  Lake  and  Market  streets.  Tt  was  then  a  fashionable  board- 
ing house,  and  quite  a  number  of  young  married  i)eople  had 
rooms  tlu!re.  The  parlor  was  in  the  second  story  fronting 
west,  from  the  windows  of  which  the  best  view  of  tlu;  dance 
was  to  be  obtained,  and  these  were  filled  with  ladies  so  soon 
as  the  dance  commenced.  From  this  point  of  view  my  own 
observations  were  principally  made.  Although  the  din  and 
clatter  had  been  heard  lor  a  considerable  time,  they  did  not 
come  into  view  from  this  point  of  observation  till  they  had 
proceeded  so  far  west  as  to  come  on  a  line  with  the  house, 
which  was  before  they  had  reached  the  North  Branch  bridge. 
From  that  time  on,  they  were  in  full  view  all  the  way  to  the 
South  Branch  bridge,  which  was  nearly  before  us,  the  wild 
band,  which  was  in  front  as  they  came  upon  the  bridge, 
redoubling  their  blows  to  increase  the  noise,  closely  followed 
by  the  warriors,  who  had  now  wrought  themselves  into  a  per- 
fect frenzy. 

The  morning  was  very  warm,  and  the  perspiration  was  pouring 
from  them  almost  in  streams.  Their  eyes  were  w"ld  and  blood- 
shot.  Their  countenances  had  assumed  an  expression  of  all 
the  worst  passions  which  can  find  a  place  in  the  breast  of  a 
savage — fierce  anger,  terrible  hate,  dire  revenge,  remorseless 
cruelty — all  were  expressed  in  their  terrible  features.  Their 
muscles  stood  out  in  great  hard  knots,  as  if  wrought  to  a  ten- 
sion which  must  burst  them.  Their  tomahawks  and  clubs  were 
thrown  and  brandished  about  in  every  direction,  with  the  most 

3 


34 

terrihlo  ferocity,  iiiui  with  u  lorce  and  uner^^y  whiiili  could  only 
result  I'rotn  the  higliest  oxoitomont,  und  with  ovory  step  and 
every  gesture,  they  uttered  the  inoal  frightful  yells,  in  every 
itnaginuble  key  luid  note,  though  gonenilly  the  highest  und 
shrillest  possible.  The  divnee,  which  was  ever  eontinued,  eon- 
uisted  of  leaps  and  sp.isinodie8te[)s,  now  forward  and  now  hack  or 
sideways,  with  the  whole  body  distorted  into  every  imaginable 
unnatural  petition,  most  generally  stooping  forward,  with  the 
head  and  (ace  thrown  up,  the  back  arched  down,  (irst  one  foot 
thrown  far  forward  and  then  withdrawn,  and  the  other  similarly 
thrust  out,  frequently  scpiatting  (juite  to  the  ground,  and  all 
with  a  movement  almost  as  (juick  as  lightning.  Their  weapons 
were  brandished  as  if  they  would  slay  a  thousand  enemies  at 
every  blow,  while  the  yells  and  screams  they  uttered  were 
broken  up  and  multiplied  and  rendered  all  the  more  hideous 
by  a  rapid  elappin,'^  of  the  mouth  with  the  palm  of  the  hand. 

To  see  such  an  exhibition  by  a  single  individual  would  have 
been  sufficient  lo  excite  a  sense  <tf  ('car  in  a  person  not  over 
nervous.  Eight  hundred  such,  all  under  tlie  influence  o(  the 
strongest  and  wildest  excitement,  constituting  a  raging  sea  of 
dusky,  painted,  naked  fiends,  presented  a  spectacle  absolutely 
appalling. 

When  the  head  of  the  column  had  reached  the  front  of  the 
hotel,  leaping,  dancing,  gesticuhiting  an  1  screaming,  while  they 
looked  up  at  the  windows  with  hell  itself  depicted  on  their 
faces,  at  the  "  chemokoman  squaws  "  with  which  they  were  filled, 
and  brandishing  their  weapons  as  if  they  were  about  to  make 
a  real  attack  in  deadly  earnest,  the  rear  was  still  on  the  other 
side  of  the  river,  two  hundred  yards  off;  and  all  the  interven- 
ing space,  including  the  bridge  and  its  approaches,  was  covered 
with  this  raging  savagery  glistening  in  the  sun,  reeking  with 
streamy  sweat,  fairly  frothing  at  their  mouths  as  with  unaffected 


35 

rage,  it  seemed  uh  if  we  hud  n  picture  of  hell  itaclf  before  us, 
and  II  eiurnivjil  of  the  duinued  spirits  tiioro  confined,  wlione 
pastitnes  we  may  suppose  slionld  present  some  suiili  seenes  hh 
tliia. 

At  tliis  staij;e  of  the  speetaf^le,  I  was  interested  to  obs«'rve 
tlie  effect  it  liad  upon  the  diffenMit  ladies  who  occupied  the 
windows  ultnost  within  reach  of  the  war  (iluba  in  the  hands  of 
the  excited  savages  just  below  them.  Most  of  them  had  become 
accustometl  to  the  sight  of  the  luiked  savages  during  the  sev- 
eral weeks  they  iiad  occupied  the  town,  and  had  even  seen 
them  in  the  dance  before,  for  several  minor  dances  had  been 
previously  performed,  but  this  far  excelled  in  the  horrid  any- 
thing which  they  had  previously  witnessed.  Others,  however, 
had  but  just  arrived  in  town,  and  had  never  seen  an  Indian 
before  the  last  few  days,  and  knew  nothing  of  our  wild  western 
Indians  but  what  they  had  learned  of  their  savage  butcheries 
and  torturea  in  legends  and  in  histories.  To  those  most  fiimiliar 
with  them,  the  scenes  seemed  actually  appalling,  and  but  few 
stood  it  through  and  met  the  fierce  glare  of  the  savage  eyes 
below  them  without  shrinking.  It  was  a  place  to  try  the 
human  nerves  of  even  the  stoutest,  and  all  felt  that  one  such 
sight  was  enough  for  a  lifetime.  The  question  forced  itself 
on  even  those  who  had  seen  tliem  most,  what  if  they  should, 
in  their  maddened  frenzy,  turn  this  sham  warfare  into  a  real 
attack?  how  easy  it  would  be  for  them  to  massacre  us  all, 
and  leave  not  a  living  soul  to  tell  the  story.  Some  such 
remark  as  this  was  often  heard,  and  it  was  not  strange  if  the 
cheeks  of  all  paled  at  the  thought  of  such  a  possibility.  How- 
ever, most  of  them  stood  it  bravely,  and  saw  the  sight  to  the 
very  end  ;  but  I  think  all  felt  relieved  when  the  last  had  dis- 
appeared around  the  corner  as  they  passed  down  Lake  street, 
and  only  those  horrid  sounds  which  reached  them  told  that  the 

•*•*  •'.'..•  •    •  •"<'•••'  .  .V.  .. 

•  ••....•.   •  •   •  •   <■  '  •  • 

•.••/.••....  

*..'••'•.;','  •»..',   ?   ••     .•;.•.••» 

•  •  •      •.;••..::    :••  :    ;. 


36 

war  dance  was  still  progressing.  They  paused  in  their  progress, 
for  extra  exploits,  in  front  of  Dr.  Temple's  house,  on  the  corner 
of  Lake  and  Franklin  streets,  then  in  front  of  the  F.fchange 
Coflipe  House,  a  little  further  east  on  Lake  street ;  and  then  again 
in  front  of  the  Treniont,  then  situate  on  the  north-west  corner 
of  Lake  and  Dearborn  streets,  where  the  appearance  of  the  ladies 
in  the  windows  again  inspired  them  with  new  life  and  energy. 
From  thence  they  passed  down  to  Fort  Dearborn,  where  they 
concluded  their  performance  in  the  presence  of  the  officers  and 
soldiers  of  the  garrison,  where  we  will  take  a  final  leave  of  my 
old  friends,  with  more  good  wishes  for  their  future  welfare  than 
I  really  dare  hope  will  be  realized. 


'«•  ' '  ...» 


i 


